Sharing our daily adventures around or dinner table

new routine

It has been a little over 3 months since my health scare and I am finally in a good routine with my self care… just in time for me to go back to work. I can say that it took the rest of January (after I was well enough to get out of bed) and February to figure out what I needed in self care and that in March I really put it into practice. My day looked a lot like this

6:30am – Monkey wakes up so we start our day

8:30am – Monkey goes down for his nap, I make breakfast and head back upstairs to bed where I open the curtains to let the sun in and watch YouTube while I eat my breakfast in bed. I get ready for the gym and relax until Monkey wakes up.

10:30am – We head to the gym. This is a great outing for Monkey, he loved the train table in the day care and it gives him a chance to get out of the house and see new people. He is a “gregarious one” as my dad says so daily outings make everyone’s lives easier and at least this way I get a little extra self care in.

12pm – We head home and have lunch

1pm – Monkey goes down for nap #2. Now I am able to do some quick chores, get cleaned up from the gym and do my FAVOURITE chore folding diapers, upstairs, on the bed watching the afternoons hustle on our quiet street.

By the time Monkey wakes up from his afternoon nap chores are done, dinner is prepped I am rested, rejuvenated and ready to tackle the next play time. This routine has really worked for me and I really am going to miss now that I am back to work. But change is growth and growth is good right?!?

So how do I plan on keeping a baby/life/work balance now that I am split three ways instead of two? Well I am not completely sure… You see I am returning to work in a new role that is more team based, so before when I generally worked your traditional 9-5 there was a ton of flexibility so making time for the gym or yoga in my lunch breaks was easy, and I didn’t have a Monkey to pick up at day home so there were a lot of opportunities for self care. I was a typical gym after work, lunch break work outs when I needed to, massage every 3 weeks kind of gal back then. Now everything will be different I will be learning my new role and working as a team so my 9-5 is not my own anymore and Monkey (or more likely Miss J) will be waiting for pick up promptly at 5:30 and somehow I will have to somehow manage 3-4 work outs a week and hopefully get better at booking my massages regularly again.

My initial back to work plan is to take it easy the first week. Make my lunch and our breakfasts at night so I don’t have to worry about that in the mornings and make sure they are very healthy. I don’t want to loose any of the traction I have gained since mid January. Then hopefully I will feel like I at least know where my office is next week and maybe I can work in a few work outs on my lunch hours or at least go for a few walks.

What I learned when trying to find a routine for myself over the last few months was that it is much better and more successful when you take it slow. I didn’t loose all the baby weight more like maternity leave weight before going back to work but I did splurge on some new work clothes that I LOVE (capsule wardrobe coming soon), and I have a routine that I look forward to doing every day and give Monkey a much happier mama.

How did you balance your baby/life/work balance when you finish maternity leave? How many time did you need to change it up to make it work? Let me know if the comments bellow!